That's what I'm wondering after reading the recent news about marijuana. An ABC News/Washington Post finds that 46 percent of Americans now support legalizing marijuana, more than twice the percentage of 12 years ago.

In California, always a leading indicator when it comes to pot, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says it is "time for a debate" about legalizing marijuana, although he says he still remains personally opposed. California Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-S.F., introduced a legalization bill he says could add $1.3 billion a year to the state's strapped coffers.

In Oregon, marijuana advocates are also focused on the idea of using the drug as a revenue source instead of a revenue cost (in the form of prosecuting marijuana trafficking, etc.).

The Oregon chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws had floated a proposed initiative that would have turned the Oregon Liquor Control Commission into the Oregon Cannabis and Liquor Control Comission.

Madeline Martinez, the head of Oregon NORML, said her group has decided to abandon that idea after polling showed voters didn't like the idea of mixing pot and liquor sales (insert your own Cheech and Chong joke here).

Instead, Martinez said her group is drafting an alternative legalization plan that she's hoping the Legislature would consider at its expected February session.

"It is incumbent on them to bring some relief to our economic crisis," she said of the lawmakers. "We could pay for health care for the entire state" through legalizing and taxing pot, she added.

When I pressed Martinez on that point, she acknowledged that this might be an overstatement. Still, she said it's not unreasonable that the state could raise quite a bit of money since some 300,000 Oregonians have said in health surveys that they smoke marijuana.

In any case, Martinez is looking for a legislative sponsor to take on the issue and says: "Do I have a list [of possible sponsors]? Absolutely. Am I willing to share them? No."